German Auslegeschrift No. 1 158 800 decribes an automatic sewing machine having a sewing head including a rotary housing arranged at an arm and a rotatably received hook bearing. Both the hook bearing and the rotary housing are synchronously rotatable about a common axis which essentially corresponds to the longitudinal axis of the needle. The rotary housing and the hook bearing are driven by a control motor operably connected to sensors which are guided by a trace line corresponding to the profile of a stitch contour to be produced. The control motor is operably connected by gears to the rotary housing, which is connected by shafts and bevel gears to the hook bearing, which again is rotatingly operable by means of gears. The drive for the crank mechanism that reciprocates the needle bar is a double bevel gear which is concentrically pivoted with respect to the axis of rotation. On one hand the double bevel gear is drivingly connected to the main shaft, and on the other hand the double bevel gear is drivingly connected to the crank mechanism. This kind of contruction is quite complicated and has high inertia and thus not desirable for automatic sewing devices. Further, the construction becomes quite expensive due to the fact that the gears of such drive connection must be adjustably arranged as well as lubricated.